As I sit here on the eve of New Year's Eve, I am lamenting.
Years ago I got my Mom a sign I found and it said, " I don't mind change as long as nothing is done differently."
She hated change. She never rearranged anything. My parents dressers were actually my great Grand Mother's. In ten years she never fully emptied my Dad's office. She flipped out when I threw out his toothbrush after he died. The curtains never even changed, just taken down and washed to be put back up. The same artwork was hung in the same place for 30 plus years.
To not accept change is to live like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Monotonous, boring, repetitive, unrealistic.
For a woman who loved adventure, when it came to a day to day life, my Mother wanted it to remain the same.
When my Father died, she never got over that change in her life.
The hard truth is, things do change. Constantly. This pandemic is concrete proof.
If we stand still in the Ocean, we will eventually get knocked down. We need to be fluid to survive. We need to be flexible. We need to roll with the waves.
We can't be the rock in the stream, we must be the water, as is indicated in Taoism. We must be the water because water is relentless. The water moves around the rock, it allows itself to spread to change, to get to it's destination. Water is opportunistic, given the slightest opening, it will find a path.
We need to be able to pivot. We need to arm ourselves with the skills needed in order weather the currents as they change. We need to be water.
Sometimes we may not like the changes that life throws at us, but we can not just stand there, or we will get knocked down. We can't allow ourselves to be fixed like the rock.
As we grow, we go through changes. Births, deaths, friendships lost and friendships gained. We must be able to adjust, even if we don't want to. Even if these changes aren't what we want.
We need to be able to go with the flow.
Our survival depends on it.
Xoxo,
C.
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